


Dreaming in Red

by Artemis_Egeria



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, F/M, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Religious Content, Scarlet Vision Halloween Party, Supernatural Being, brief mention of end-of-life decisions, kind of, svhp2018, very nonspecific
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16480253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Egeria/pseuds/Artemis_Egeria
Summary: Wanda’s dreams take her to a place that she never would have thought existed.Written for the Scarlet Vision Halloween Party 2018.





	Dreaming in Red

It all began shortly before All Hallows’ Eve arrived, when the wall between life and death was thinnest. 

The red-drenched dream filled Wanda’s sleep for the tenth night in a row. She didn’t know where it was coming from, but it was starting to haunt her days as well. It was a simple dream. It was just her standing in a graveyard that she recognized, digging into the earth, and finding a door that opened onto a stairway that led deeper into the ground. 

Now it was the day of Halloween, and Wanda finally decided that enough was enough. She vowed to go to the nearby cemetery that very night. Her day seemed to last weeks as she thought of little else besides what she might find that night. When darkness finally arrived, the cemetery was fortunately empty. Wanda picked the lock on a toolshed and removed a shovel from within. As midnight approached, she began to dig up the earth in the same spot that she had observed in her dream. Dirt piled up around the hole that she was making. After almost an hour of digging, she was beginning to think that she was being stupid. There was nothing in the soil. 

Then, she struck something solid. Wanda scraped around the surface and found a red door that was exactly the same as the one that her dream had shown her. She paused, wondering what to do next. This was suddenly all too real. But, she had come this far. Curiosity was simmering in her veins, drawing her hands closer to the door handle.

A red glow spilled forth from the passage that the door concealed. Stone steps led down as far as the eye could see. Wanda took a tentative step and then another and then another. Once she was completely submerged, the door shut behind her. She jumped, panic suddenly overtaking her curiosity. She turned and tried to push the door open, but it remained firmly shut. Screaming would have been useless. 

She pushed her shoulder against the door, heaving her entire body weight against it. It did not shift one inch. There was nothing for it but to continue on unless she was to wait there all night and hope for someone to find her in the morning. 

Wanda walked for what felt like hours. Neither the atmosphere nor the light changed, but it did get steadily warmer. The stairway finally began to widen as it came to a landing and another doorway. She peeked her head inside and found an office, complete with filing cabinets, bookshelves, and a desk full of papers. Another door at the far side of the room was closed. 

The doorknob started to turn, and Wanda hurried back the way she had come, pressing herself against the wall. She could hear the desk chair creaking with the weight of someone sitting down. Scratching sounds indicated a writing implement moving across a paper. After a few moments, all sound ceased until she could hear footsteps approaching her. 

A warm, quiet voice with a surprising British accent said, “Who’s there?” The steps shuffled closer, and she tried to hold her breath. “I can smell you and hear you breathing.” A gasp left her involuntarily. She began to back up the steps as quickly and quietly as possible.

Her heart was already racing, but it sped up even more when the face came through the open doorway. The figure looked like a man, but his skin was a deep red color, interlaced with strange silver patterns. Wanda fell backward in shock. The man looked down at Wanda, staring at her hard. Neither of them spoke for several moments. Her mind was whirring, going through various options for self-defense from past classes she had taken. 

The man only stared down at her. Wanda in turn studied the man’s bright red skin and supernaturally blue eyes. “Are you the devil?” The words left her mouth without her permission. She had never set much store by the image of the devil in American pop culture, the concept far removed from the Judaism that she was raised with. 

He did not look offended as she might have expected. Instead, his expression softened. “The answer to that is more complicated than you might think.” Lips quirking up slightly, he continued. “The stories about what came to be known as Satan or the devil lead from my past interactions with humans, but those stories have twisted the truth of what happened out of all recognition.” 

Maybe there was more to the popular idea of the devil that most Americans had than Wanda would have believed. “So, you’re not trying to tempt humans into evil?”

“Not at all. I have simply been an observer.” He paused, pursing his lips slightly. “Well, most of the time.” After another pause while he looked down at her with a closed-lip but vaguely friendly smile, the man finally asked, “Who are you?” 

Despite his somewhat comforting answers to her questions and nonthreatening air, Wanda did not answer. His frown deepened as he walked up the steps toward her. “Are you hurt?” He held out a hand to her as if to help her up, but she just pushed herself farther away from him. She did not know what she hoped to accomplish by the move, but she had to try. The man remained where he was. “I am not going to hurt you.”

“Why should I believe you?” It was one thing for him not to be the devil, but he was still a mysterious being that she had no understanding of. 

He paused for a moment to consider. “I suppose that you have no reason to trust me, but if I am correct in my assumption, you have no choice. The door is locked behind you.” He folded his arms over his chest and his lips quirked slightly. 

She forced herself to stand up on shaky legs, leaning against the wall and trying to regain her composure. The man continued to regard her silently as she got to her feet, before waving a hand at her. “Please follow me.”

Clenching her fists, she asked, “What happens if I don’t?” 

“Then you will have to stay out here.” He seemed unbothered by the idea, though puzzlement was growing more obvious on his face.

“Why don’t you just let me go?”

“Because I have to determine how you managed to find my abode in the first place.” The man’s gaze continued to study her, making no effort to hide his confusion or his scrutiny. “You should not have been able to perceive the door at all.” 

“Fine, then I’m staying out here.” Wanda sensed that it would be no use trying to fight him or argue with him, but she was no puppet for him to yank along by the strings. 

“If you insist,” he sighed. “I will be in my office if you change your mind.” He turned away from her without another word.

Time seemed to crawl by. She looked down at her watch, but it had stopped at 12:05 am. No matter what, she refused to give into her impatience. After what felt like a few more hours, Wanda finally went into the office. The man—somehow she could not stop thinking of him that way, no matter that he was not human was sitting at his desk—shuffling through some papers and preparing to write something down. “Alright.” He looked up at the sound of her voice. “You win.” 

No smirk betrayed him, but there was a slight glimmer of what she fancied to be amusement in his eyes. He conjured a chair from thin air. “Have a seat.” He straightened the papers and continued, “May I have your name, please?” 

Some instinct forced her to challenge him once again before she could stop herself. Remaining on her feet, she squared her shoulders and faced him directly. “What happens if I don’t give it to you?” 

“Then this process will be much more difficult, and you will be forced to stay down here longer.” Though she would have thought his words were meant to convey annoyance, his face remained completely impassive, with the barest hint of a smile. His tone was light, and a slight wave of his hand toward the chair formed an invitation to make herself more comfortable. 

But she was not ready to give in yet. “You can create furniture out of nothing. Can’t you read my mind or something to find out my name?” 

“Yes, I could, but,” his gaze became more intent, “based on your demeanor so far, I assume that you would not be amenable to that sort of intrusion.” 

“But I wouldn’t be able to stop you.”

“No, you would not, but it is not my practice to invade people’s minds without their consent. I meant it when I said I would not hurt you.” Wanda felt that she was wearing down his patience. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. After a moment, his features resettled into an impassive mask. 

She found herself surrendering and sat in the chair in front of him. “My name’s Wanda Maximoff.” 

“Thank you for telling me. Now, why are you here?” 

“I’ve been having dreams of this place for over a week. I came here and dug until I found the door. I couldn’t resist exploring.”

“Ah, yes, curiosity is a very human trait.” His words did not sound condescending, but she didn’t know what to make of the look in his eyes. “I always admired that will to discover new things.”

“So you won’t mind if I ask what you do down here?” 

“No, I do not mind. I am a guardian of sorts. I record the souls of the dead who pass through and occasionally offer comfort to those whose deaths were particularly traumatic. All I know is that when I first came into existence, the universe was new. I have known certain things from the beginning, such as that I am not supposed to interfere with human lives. But I have never known exactly why I am here.” 

Wanda would have to consider this more later, that she was talking to an immortal, ageless being, but now she was not going to waste the opportunity to ask more questions. “And why do you have an office? I would guess you don’t need any of this.” She gestured around the room. 

“Not strictly speaking, no, but I have lived among humans at times, despite it being against the rules. I found myself missing these comforts when I removed myself from the surface.” He took a deep breath. She wondered briefly if such a being as him even needed to breathe. “I am more than willing to answer more questions later, but I still need to determine what to do with you.” 

He stood and circled her. His eyes on her made her nervous, but she was grateful for the comfortable distance he left between them. “Your dreams do not explain why you were able to find this place.”

“I didn’t come here on purpose.” A lifetime of being suspected of minor crimes and running away from the system only made her defensive. “I didn’t know I was intruding.” 

He returned to his seat and spoke softly. “I know. You are not in trouble, and you are not intruding. It has been so long since I’ve had company. It is simply that your presence here does not comport with my understanding of the universe.” 

“I was never very good at following the rules.” 

The slightest smile graced his face. “I could imagine that.” His lips turned down once more. “But I do not know what to do with you now.” 

“You could just let me go like I asked earlier.” She stared at him directly, arms folded across her chest. The magnitude of the situation might have been catching up with Wanda, but she did not have to show it. “I won’t tell anyone about this. I promise. Even if I did, no one would believe me.” 

His eyes remained glued on her, following every slight shift of her weight and twitch of her fingers. “Perhaps.” He steepled his fingers together again. “You promise not to tell a soul?”

“You have no reason to believe that I’ll tell you the truth either.” Why Wanda was giving him more reasons to keep her prisoner, she had no idea, but she continually felt compelled to challenge this strange, maddeningly calm man.

A simple nod acknowledged the truth of her statement. “No, I do not. But you trusted me enough to come in here and tell me your name, and I think we are getting along amiably enough.” 

“I guess.” He was still looking at her expectantly and she realized that she had not answered his question. “Anyway, I would tell my brother; I tell him absolutely everything. But I don’t know anyone else well enough to tell them.” 

“Thank you for your honesty. I have always wondered what it is like to have a sibling. I have always been alone.” In his face was all the sadness of the world, and for a moment she really did feel like he could be billions of years old. 

“I’m sorry.” She wondered if she should offer more than some vague platitude. “I don’t know what I would do without my brother. It’s always been just the two of us.” 

He nodded resolutely once more, seemingly having arrived at a decision. Wanda’s breath caught in her throat as she waited. “Come with me. I will take you back to the surface.” 

Air rushed back into and out of her lungs with her sigh of relief. “Thank you.” He stood from his desk and ushered her on ahead of him. As they began the trek up the stairs, a new thought struck Wanda. “Do you have a name?” 

“Not as such, but my favorite name that I have ever been referred to as is Vision.” 

“Okay. Vision.” Odd a name as it was, it did suit him. 

They continued to walk up the steps side by side. They were largely silent, though Wanda did catch Vision shooting occasional glances at her. “Do you enjoy being human, Miss Maximoff?” 

The strangeness of the question forced a laugh from her that she quickly stifled. “Well, I have nothing to compare it to, but I think so, most of the time.” She left out the grief she felt for her parents, the days when there had been gnawing hunger, and the nightmares that brought her back to those times. Seeking to turn the subject away from herself, she asked, “Did you enjoy living as a human?”

His eyes took on a look of misty reminiscence. “Very much, but I never stayed on the surface long enough to gain a true picture of human life.”

“You should try coming back some time.” 

“I do not know if I would be able to. The last time I visited was the early twentieth century. I found the amount of human misery on the planet overwhelming. It overpowered all my senses.” The sadness from before returned, and Wanda had the odd desire to soothe him. 

“Things have gotten better in a lot of ways since then, though I guess the world is still miserable.”

“Yes, I am aware. Perhaps you are right.” After a pause, Vision continued, “I never did get the opportunity to see a movie or fly in an airplane.” 

She smiled at the shift to a lighter topic. “I should give you a list of movies you need to see if you ever get the chance.” 

His own grin glowed, much wider than she had seen him smile previously. “I would appreciate that.” They reached the top of the stairs far sooner than she had anticipated, and she was left feeling rather regretful as Vision pressed his hand against the door, muttering a brief incantation. It swung open easily. “Here you are. Please remember your promise.” 

She grinned at him. “I don’t think I ever officially promised to stay silent.” 

Wanda expected Vision to frown or implore her not to say anything, but he merely smirked back at her. “I have come around to your way of thinking. As you said, no one would believe you if you did tell the truth, so do what you will.” 

“Touché.” She took a few more steps but paused at the last one. Turning back, she said, “Anyway, thank you for letting me go.”

“It is only right that you be with your family that you love, and I could not hold you here indefinitely.” With one last shared smile, she stepped out into the cool early dawn air. When she turned back, the ground was completely undisturbed, and there was no sign of any other person or the doorway. The shovel that she had borrowed was leaning against the nearby tree, and she shook her head, wondering if she really could have imagined it all. 

Six months later Wanda’s world was torn apart. 

She sat by Pietro’s bedside every day as the life support whirred. The doctors all told her to give up, but she just couldn’t, not yet. The medical terminology washed over her without illuminating anything about his condition. But they were adamant that his chances of waking up were minuscule. She and her brother had discussed this; she knew that he would not want his body to live on if it was just an empty husk. She just needed more time. 

Three months passed in that way, but it might have been three years for all Wanda noticed or cared. Seconds stretched into hours as she prayed that her brother would sit up and grin at her, asking what was for dinner. Then, one morning she came into the hospital after a rare night off that the staff had insisted on to find doctors and nurses running in and out of Pietro’s room. 

The main doctor on his case stopped Wanda as she was trying to enter. “Please sit in the waiting area. We’ll let you know when we have news.” She did as she was told, mind running over various possibilities endlessly. After another hour, someone finally called her back. She entered Pietro’s room to find him sitting up in bed, propped up on a number of pillows. He was thin and pale, but there was life in his eyes. 

His gaze frantically searched for Wanda, smiling fully when he saw her. She ran to the bed and threw her arms around Pietro. He clutched her back. “You were right,” he whispered in her ear. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.” She didn’t ask for elaboration at the moment. 

It was after dark before all the tests were completed, Pietro was given a clean bill of health by doctors staring in open wonder, and the twins were alone again. Wanda sat by his bed, holding both of his hands in hers. Pietro said, “I don’t understand what happened. One minute there was just nothingness and the next I was in this empty room. The walls were all glowing red and the air felt warmer than wherever I was before.” He paused, just shaking his head. Wanda squeezed his hand more tightly.

When the silence stretched out between them, Wanda gently prodded, “What happened next?”

“This red guy appeared out of nowhere and asked me if I was Pietro Maximoff. He looked just like you said. Then, he just closed his eyes and said some things I didn’t understand. Before I could question anything, I was lying in a bed. When I opened my eyes, I was here. The doctors were just running around like idiots, they looked as if they saw a ghost. Later, they said there was some sort of malfunction with the machines and that I was dead briefly.” When his story was complete, they sat in silence. Pietro more speechless than Wanda had ever seen him. 

There were a million things that Wanda wanted to say to Pietro right now, but one stood out the most in her mind. “See, I told you so.” Pietro stuck his tongue out at her. “And I’m so glad you’re back.” She remained holding his hand while she caught him up on everything he had missed until they both drifted off to sleep. 

Life resumed its normal rhythms. Pietro came home from the hospital, and they returned to their jobs and hobbies and friends. But a persistent thought drummed in the back of Wanda’s mind. After a couple of months, her dreams from the previous year began again. 

When the night of Halloween arrived, Pietro, eager to make up for lost time, tried to convince Wanda to go to a party with him and wear a joint costume. She claimed that she only wanted to hand out candy to trick or treaters. He begged one last time and looked at her suspiciously as he was leaving, but he gave up in the end. Once he was gone, she drove to the cemetery.

After breaking into the same shed and digging in the same spot that she had the previous year, Wanda reached the door. Part of her had been convinced that she would never find it again, but she was glad when it opened easily. She made the journey down the steps, which felt much shorter than the last time. When she came to the familiar landing, she poked her head in the door. Vision was already staring at her incredulously. “Wanda, what are you doing here? Is something wrong with your brother?” 

“No, no, but that is why I’m here. Kinda.” His brow furrowed in confusion. “I wanted to thank you for breaking the rules again.” 

“Oh.” He smiled at her and conjured a chair. “You are welcome.” 

“Why did you do it?”

“You talked of what your brother means to you.” Vision began examining the woodgrain of his desk as if it were supremely interesting. “After having met you, keeping you from pain seemed more important than the impersonal laws of the universe.” His gaze turned back to her, a tentative smile now playing at the edges of his mouth. “And, as I mentioned, I have been known to bend the rules on occasion.” 

“Well, I can never thank you enough.” Vision tilted his head at her. Though she had done what she set out to do, she found herself wanting to linger. “Do you mind if I stay here for a while? I could use some tea.” 

Without a word, a teapot and cup appeared in front of her. “This is certainly unconventional, but you are welcome to stay as long as you would like.” Wanda sipped the hot liquid gratefully and tried to subtly stare at Vision. After his initial surprise, he was leaning back comfortably in his chair and apparently waiting for her to continue the conversation or not. 

“So, have you been to the surface since the last time I was down here?” 

“No, I have not. Perhaps I am too much a creature of habit.” Gazing into the middle distance, he added, “Though I can disguise myself as an average human, I have been afraid of all I do not understand about the world as it exists today.” 

“If you ever need a guide, I can show you around.” The words left her without conscious thought, and she blushed. Wanda wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but she was helplessly intrigued by this man. 

Vision’s own bashful smile was half hidden when he dipped his head. “Maybe I will accept your kind offer.” 

They spent the rest of the night in pleasant conversation, topics shifting from the mundane to the profound and back again. Vision asked her about the modern world, the technology he was vaguely aware of but did not fully understand, her favorite elements of pop culture, and what it was like to fully experience humanity. She in turn grilled him about the beginning of the universe, the distant past, and what he most wanted to see on the surface.

When she returned to the surface, morning sunlight was already filtering through the tree branches that had only a few leaves clinging to them. It was with an agreement that Vision would come visit her in a few weeks. This time when she looked back, just the top of Vision’s head was sticking out of the doorway as he waved at her briefly.

She waved back, and the doorway disappeared from view again. As she walked to her car, Wanda smiled to herself, thinking of what she would show Vision first when he arrived.


End file.
